Nanjing Breakup

The Nanjing Breakup, or the Nanjing betrayal is the event dubbed by historians for the cascading breakdown of China in 1928, starting with a monarchist revolution sweeping nationalist China.

Prelude, the warlord era
After the breakup of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the 2000 year reign of monarchism came to an end. But China was not unified, far from it. China immediately broke up into smaller cliques and warlord states, and thus the warlord era of China began. Throughout the decades, nothing really changed, except for a slow departure of the European influences. First was Germany, who lost its colonies thanks to the Great War. Next was Britain, whose influence abruptly came to an end from the Cairo War and during the Treaty of Valletta Hong Kong was given to Japan, shutting out British influence. After that was Russia, who was forced to retreat from Chinese meddling thanks to the civil war in 1925. French influence was beginning to wan after the breakup of French Indochina in 1928. Yet, despite foreign influence waning from the Europeans Japanese influence only strengthened. Many in China were sick of the constant war and wanted peace. In part thanks to Japanese meddling, the idea of an absolute monarchy came back to China, especially near the coast. However, this group, lead by Wu Peifu from 1925 onwards did not identify with Qing, nor did they want to restore the Qing. Especially since the last emperor of the Qing, Puyi began to lean towards Japan as they meddled in Manchuria. But they did see the glory days before the 1800s, how China was unified and entirely self sufficient. This group, adopting the name “Royalty Party” wanted a China that was unified, wasn’t fractured and not exploitable. More so against Japan as European influence began to leave.

Royalist Uprising
In March of 1928, in Nanjing, the capital of nationalist (republican) China, a mass of royalist protestors soon turned violent. They began looting businesses, destroying museums, libraries etc. The next day, republican forces began to infiltrate the city to quell the uprising, which was unsuccessful. The revolution had begun. The royalist forces through the night took key parts of the city and forced the republican forces out. From this moment, Wu Peifu standing with a crowd of adoring pro-royalists, declared the Kingdom of China. But he didnt declare himself as emperor, in part due to the major power struggle between him and several other generals. It is still undecided to this day. Outside of the city, royalist forces that had been planning for years began their offensives. Pro royalists were encouraged to join the army and many did. Entire militias formed from the public. Although Nanjing was taken and some sporadic lands also in royalist hands, it seemed like the uprising would be easily crushed. Yet this wasn’t the case. Kuomingtan forces couldn’t outmaneuver the royalist forces, not to mention at the time, Nationalist China managed to make all the warlords by force aligned with the nationalists. But due to the uprising, it created a huge domino effect. The government-aligned warlords began to rebel, one by one. In total, 7 warlord states declared their independence and due to territorial disputes, war broke out between all of these factions and governments. But the royalists were only fighting the nationalists and as a result made considerable gains against the nationalists. Mongolia also invaded the fighting warlords of the Ma and Guomingjan clique for the purpose of annexing Inner Mongolia in September. Japan the same month stepped in as a mediator to end the fighting. The Nanjing Accord was signed and ratified in October. It made the nationalists recognize all the new warlords, Mongolia’s claim of Inner Mongolia and the recognition of Royalist China.